Firenze & Venezia - Museums & Canals (March 20-27)

Firenze (Florence)
We arrived and found a hotel seller (they flock to the arriving trains) that actually represented the hostel we looked up earlier, David Inn. Found a cheap room there to share with only one other girl with lots of space. Bathrooms not the most ideal but ended up being hot, mostly. Turns out another girl was staying in an adjoining room (looked like a closet) so she entered and exited through ours. A bit of a surprise when she first walked through.

We liked being able to walk around the city (unlike Rome where you needed the metro) so we took full advantage our first day. Saw a few cool looked Piazza's, including one near Palazzo Vecchio where they also had a mostly open area (just covered by a roof) with a number of beautiful statues (a few representing famous rapes, but still beautiful sculptures). We walked around the Palazzo ? but couldn't get ourselves up the incredible amount of steps to hit the Porcelain museum portion. On our way back we went inside the Duomo designed by Bruneleschi. The outside is just gorgeous, very detailed and huge but the inside is very simple except for the painting in the dome. Some friends we met took us to see Pazalle Michelangelo, which is like a square but larger and with an incredible view of the entire city.

It was fairly drizzly with rain most of the time or at least grey so we did go to the Uffizi Museum one day. It was a bit overwhelming and we decided to be cheap and buy the two earphone audioguide. Not exactly the best thing to be attached together pretty close in a crowded museum trying to navigate the museum. After a few hours or maybe more we left to take a nap (Carrie) and read (me). Then I went by myself to the Accademia to see Michelangelo's sculpture of David. The 30 minute wait (even at 5:30 pm) was worth it just to see this masterpiece. I had no idea it was so big and he carved it out of one piece of marble, taking 10 years to complete. WOW! Truly spectacular, I just spend time sitting and staring.

Venezia (Venice)
We arrived by train and the nice lady Anna who sat next to us walked us from there to the area we were staying, Campo Margherita. I tell you we would have been a bit lost without her at that point, so many bridges going over all the canals. Crazy stuff! And, of course it wasn't the nicest with our big packs. Carrie has at least one extra bag so it must have been worse for her! We made it to Hotel Antica Capon and only had one roommate and the bathroom in the room, yeah! Always a plus. Some musicians setting up led us to enter a wine bar so we ended up staying to listen to the music and test out some Italian wine (Yummy!). The owner (& bartender) Max was really nice and gave us some free tasting! The next day we spent the time roaming around the streets and over the canals to visit every glass shop we saw (maybe that is a slight but only slight exaggeration). The Venetian glass is just gorgeous and they have beautiful pieces of jewelry, vases, etc. Too bad I couldn't buy some bigger items, maybe next visit!

A highlight was St. Marks Square and Cathedral, it didn't seem possible that such a large open space could be hidden among the canals, narrow streets, and bridges of Venice. We visited the cathedral and the palace later on.

We visiting our new favorite wine bar about every night, great wine and company. One night we met some locals who spoke a little English and French and they invited us to their home that night for some pasta. Our crazy group of older Venetians were hysterical and they did make good on the offer of pasta as well as some cheese and prosciuotto. Yummy food and crazy people make for some good times. Max (owner of the wine bar) offered to take us around on his boat Saturday. Turned out to be a mostly pretty day and it was wonderful to ride around on the boat and see the city by water. Thanks so much for his hospitality, it was great! He even took us over to Murano to see a glass blowing demonstration. The artist got Carrie to try and let's just say it's obviously an art that takes lots of time, practice, and talent.

I really loved this city for the water, walking, glass, and people. Where we stayed was a University area so there were also some cute little bars (Chet Bar) and lots of good Gelato! One of our nightly visits to the wine bar included Carrie singing to Supertramp songs, not a surprise if you know Carrie. In a small way the city reminded me of my hometown of Annapolis, just because it is also on the water (but no canals and bridges everywhere). It was harder for me to leave this place compared to othere places in Italy like Florence and Rome. The other nice thing is that we didn't feel like we had to see a bunch of museums (although they do have some). This was a time just to soak up the culture by being in the midst of the city itself. Ciao Venezia!